Geekscape Interviews: Jason DeVilliers & Ricky Falomir From ‘The Aquabats Supershow’

Yesterday I got to experience one of those amazing life moments that only Geekscape could provide me. I had the opportunity to talk with Executive Producer/Director Jason deVilliers and Composer/Actor/Drummer/Superhero Ricky Fitness (Falomir) of The Aquabats Supershow! We talked about new, old and what to expect in the future. Follow me!

First off, how are you guys doing?

Jason: We’re doing great!

Right on. Lets jump into it then. I just watched the first episode of Season 2. Was completely blown away. How are you guys feeling about it? Do you feel like its the right progression from Season 1 and what are you overall thoughts so far.

Ricky: I am very excited about this upcoming season. All The Aquabats are more comfortable, and the whole crew really has found it’s groove. Everything is tighter, bigger explosions, better locations. I love it I am really excited.

I know what you mean. I re-watched Season 1 last night and this morning the first episode of Season 2. I can see how everything is tighter. Now the new animation style for the cartoons was really interesting. Where did you guys come up with that? It seemed like a HUGE departure from what you had in Season 1 and the original pilot.

Jason: The animations from Season 1 were serialized from episode to episode. In the Season 2 episodes, the ones that start airing June 1st, will have it’s own animation style. The one you just saw, the Heavy Metal/Ralph Bakshi style with the hand drawn over shot footage will only be in that one episode. Each episode will cover the origin of The Aquabats from the eyes of each member of the band. It will provide a perspective from each Aquabat on how they joined the group. You’ll see stop motion, computer graphics and hand drawn animations. They will change from episode to episode quite a bit.

Now I saw that you had Tony Hawk and Eric Koston as guest stars in the new episode. Can you talk about any of the new guests stars you have coming in and is there anybody that you’d really like to have guest star?

Jason: We completed shooting on the first five episodes and we hope there will be more this year. We definitely have an idea of who we’d like to have involved but I can’t talk about it yet, I can talk about who we have already filmed. Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance co-wrote and co-directed an episode with us, the Antibats episode. His brother Mike Way, the bassist of MCR, plays a character in that episode. Then we have Marks Mothersbaugh from Devo who is a really talented composer, will play Jimmy The Robots father in an upcoming episode. Leslie Hall, she is a cewbrity who makes some awesome stuff online and  has a pretty big following, she will be playing a camp counselor in the summer camp episode. Then Martin Starr from Freaks and Geeks will be making a guest starring role. We definitely have a big variety of guest stars.

Do you feel like with the show being as successful as it was, that you now have a bigger reach and are able to get bigger guest stars? Were there people you weren’t able to get in the first season that you could now?

Ricky: That’s hard to gauge.

Jason: I know that there are celebrities that love the show that watch it with their kids, and there were a few people we tried to get last season that were unavailable that we hope to get on a few episodes. Last season we had Lou Diamond Phillips, Jon Heder, Samm Levine, Al Yankovic. We had some really really great stars who were apart of last season. We have relationships with some great people through Yo Gabba Gabba and we know of people that watch that show that really want to be in it but it’s all just a matter of scheduling.

Now the scoring you guys do in all the little parts is really amazing, and in this first episode you have a nice little homage to Monkees with the chase montage. Do you guys have a different goal from episode to episode or are there any major songs that you couldn’t get into the first season that you were able to get into this second?

Ricky: There’s definitely going to be some awesome new songs. We can really go in any direction we want and that’s OK because that’s how The Aquabats are, and that’s also the point of the show. To be random and have fun. There are good songs that are going to be coming out in the second season. We all had a hand in scoring and that was a huge learning experience in it’s own. I believe the music this season will be a lot better.

Do you guys plan on bringing any of your back catalog from your albums to the show or doing remixes? When you guys did Pool Party for Yo Gabba Gabba you kind of changed it up for the younger audience, so will you guys be doing anything like that for this season?

Ricky: We just talked about that, we’re trying to figure that out. We want to re-record some of our older songs and put a new spin on them. That’s definitely in the works. There weren’t any back catalog in season one. We’d like to bring some back, and we think the kids will like it.

I’m also a huge Mega64 fan, and was totally stoked to see that you had them do some of the commercials from season one. I noticed that in the first episode of season 2 Rocco Botte did the voice over for the Sonic Boom commercial. Are you guys going to be doing more with them, possibly have them be guests on the show or do you guys plan on doing anything in any of their work?

Jason: That’s a good question. We shot the first episodes up in Utah and that made it harder to work with our friends out in California. I think we have Rocco doing voice overs on three commercials for the new episodes. Those guys are really really funny and we’d love to have them ON the show playing characters. With the next episodes we have planned it’s a definite possibility. They’re very talented.

I think it’s interesting to see their humor, toned down a bit, because they can be crude compare to you guys.

Ricky: Yeah haha, but working with kids programming you have to do that.

Now, as far as the progression from Season 1 to Season 2, was there anything in Season 1 that you weren’t able to do. Like you ran out of time or money or something that even the network said you couldn’t do that you were able to do in Season 2?

Jason: You know, the network, The HUB has been so gracious with us. They very rarely say we can’t do something. You know, we only get restrictions like if someone is riding in the Battletram that they have to be wearing their seatbelts. It’s more like just TV regulations for children’s shows. When it comes to creative stuff, the HUB has been really good at letting us do what our imaginations come up with. But, working on a tight budget, our show doesn’t quite lend itself to doing everything we want to do the way we want to do, but there is something about having that low budget that forces you to think outside the box. If you want to have a massive explosion or blow up a building, and you can’t, you have to think of another way to do it. I think a lot of our gags and things we have and the way we do things in the show have to do with having to get really creative to make things work. That also goes along the path with The Aquabats Show, trying to pay homage to the shows we grew up with in the 80’s. They had a kind of camp to them, the way they introduced model work or monster costumes where you can see the zipper. We don’t try to hide that kind of stuff. And I think really have a lower budget helps us with that.

Well I asked everything I wanted to ask, is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Jason: Just having the show become what it has, having the band grow as much as it has, having the reviews and ratings. It’s constantly growing bigger and bigger from word of mouth. When we got picked up by the HUB after filming our pilot, we’d never dream in a million years we’d be where we are now. Just having wrapped shooting  on the first episodes of Season 2 that start airing in June and having Season 1 on DVD just came out yesterday, and the fact the show is what we want it to be. We make the show we’d want to see if we were kids today, and the fact that there are people out there that support it and the fact we got nominated for an Emmy is is unreal. Rick?

Ricky: You pretty much covered it, very well said. I love to keep doing what we’re doing. There is such a loyal fanbase that support us that have stuck around forever and to all of our new fans thank you so much for watching. It’s a lot of fun and I hope you guys enjoy these new episodes!

And with that our call ended. I can’t be anymore excited for Season 2 to kick off. Keep and eye out for my review of the Season 1 DVD set and the Season 2 premier episode coming soon.

BE SURE to watch the first episode of Season 2 of The Aquabats Super Show on Saturday June 1st at 1 P. M. EST (10 A.M. PST) !